This policy has been written in consultation with all those expected to implement it, namely children, staff, parents and governor representatives. Its purpose is to give clear guidelines to all those who use Hartpury Primary School. It explains our ethos and the code of behaviour that help maintain it and our system of rewards and sanctions.

A Rights Respecting School

At Hartpury C of E Primary School, we aim to be a Rights Respecting School. This means that children are learning they have rights, but that with rights, come responsibilities. The universal rights of children are enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child. From these universal rights we focused on the following:

We have the right to learn… and the responsibility to be the best we can and to let others learn.

We have the right to be safe… and the responsibility to behave safely.

We have the right to play and have fun with our friends… and the responsibility to be a good friend and include other children in our games.

We have the right to our own opinions and beliefs… and the responsibility to respect the opinions and beliefs of others

Responsibilities

Staff responsibilities

Treat all children fairly and with respect.

Raise children’s self esteem and develop their full potential.

Provide a challenging, interesting and relevant curriculum.

Recognise that each child is an individual and to be aware of their special needs; make adjustments to learning programmes to provide personalised learning.

Create a safe, pleasant environment both physically and emotionally.

Set out and use rules and sanctions clearly and consistently.

Ensure rewards and sanctions are followed through.

Be a good role model.

Form a good relationship with parents so that all children can see that the key adults in their lives share a common aim.

Offer a framework for social education and encourage children to be aware of the needs of others.

Provide opportunities for children to take responsibility both within the classroom and through general school duties.

Develop a Classroom Charter with children so that children are very clear about how they are expected to behave.

Encourage children to take care of their own property, their school, and the property of others.

In order to encourage good behaviour the staff are to:

Set a good example themselves.

Make clear their expectations of good behaviour.

Discourage unsociable behaviour by promoting mutual respect.

Encourage children to take responsibility for their own actions and behaviour.

Be consistent in their discipline of children.

Praise good behaviour both privately and publicly.

Children’s Responsibilities.

The children’s responsibilities are:

To do their best to contribute to a positive learning environment, and allow others to do the same.

Treat others, including all adults in school, with respect.

To follow the instructions of all school staff.

Take care of property and the environment in and out of school.

Co-operate with other children and adults.

To be actively involved in creating a class charter.

Aims

To create an open and friendly environment where children and adults are helped to work and grow in mutual respect and appreciation for each other and for the world about them, we aim;

to value and appreciate one another irrespective of age, gender, creed and race;

to establish that all staff, parents and pupils in partnership are responsible for discipline at Hartpury Primary School.

to inform pupils and parents about behavioural expectations and consequences;

to give pupils with challenging behaviour a chance to correct their actions before further consequences occur.

to listen with respect to one another and be conscious never to damage another’s self-esteem.

to respect other people’s learning time.

to respect the teacher’s teaching time.

to develop self discipline, the ability to learn independently and work co-operatively.

to help children learn that courtesy and good manners are very important qualities.

to foster an awareness of responsibility to others within and beyond the school.

to foster a caring attitude for the school environment, including equipment used and extend this to the world outside of school.

that all those who work in, or visit, our school will exhibit behaviour in keeping with the aims and ethos of the school.

At Hartpury Primary School we aim to present a broad, balanced, relevant curriculum aimed at meeting the needs of all our pupils. We believe that the maintenance of standards and improvements in social behaviour should be given equal weight with academic achievements.

Strategies

The Rights Respecting School programme is central to the development of positive behaviour in the school. The staff should recognise that positive encouragement promotes good behaviour in the pupils and helps to raise their self esteem. Therefore the staff will endeavour to:

acknowledge good behaviour on all occasions

make full use of positive rewards

give descriptive/specific praise

use positive feedback techniques

Should children be unable to behave then staff should use agreed sanctions. Sanctions should be applied fairly and should be appropriate for the behaviour, in terms of severity and duration. The purpose of a sanction is to:

help children learn that consequences follow actions

deter the children from misbehaving again

deter other children from misbehaving

to show that a society has rules.

The expectation is that most children will respond to these strategies and that the class teacher will take responsibility for behaviour within their class.

‘Sunny Days’ Whole School Programme

The ‘Sunny days’ programme is an agreed whole school behaviour system, designed to promote and reward good behaviour, whilst showing clear consequences for poor behaviour.

All children start on ‘Sunny Days’ on the class behaviour chart at the beginning of each day. A three strike system is the used as follows:

Verbal warning.

Moved to ‘under a cloud’ – 5 minutes playtime is lost.

Moved to ‘stormy weather’ – a whole playtime is missed and a pink behaviour form is completed and handed to the head teacher who will take appropriate follow up action and keep track of frequency of incidences.

All children who stay on ‘sunny days’ all day will automatically earn a merit. Merits may also be awarded at anytime by any member of staff for good behaviour, hard work, good manners and helpfulness.

At times, certain extreme behaviours (such as physical injury or swearing) may lead to a child being moved straight to ‘stormy weather’. The head teacher will be informed of such incidents via the pink behaviour form and will decide on further punishment appropriate to the circumstances.

Merits

Each child has their own merit card on which they record the merits which they are given for good behaviour, hard work and making a positive contribution to the school.

Merits can be exchanged for items in ‘The Shop’ which is stocked with a range of items for all ages with values from 10-200 merits.

The four highest merit achievers in each class are invited to attend the head teacher’s tea party every half term.

Challenging Behaviour

There is no place for hurting any other human being through violence, bullying, harassment (racial, sexual, size, or other), vandalism, rudeness to adults or each other, or bad language within our school community, and this is always unacceptable.

We always try to work within a positive framework keeping parents (and if necessary Governors) informed. We understand that some children have difficulty with finding the right behaviour sometimes but have many effective strategies to promote inclusion. However, there can at times be some who present us with persistent and disturbed behaviour which requires specialist support in addition to what the school can offer. In these cases we refer to an outside agency such as the Educational Psychologist and the Pupil Referral Service.

Restraint of pupils

Positive restraint of a child will only be used when a child behaves in such a way as to endanger the safety of themselves or others.

Withdrawal from activities

Withdrawing children from a specific aspect of school life is used when behaviour is causing significant disruption to others’ learning or there is a break down in trust. This could take various forms such as; a short period/single lesson, a planned internal exclusion, exclusion from a trip or visit (including residential trips). In these instances pupils will still be accommodated within school for normal hours.

Exclusion

Exclusion is used as a last resort and the school will follow LA guidelines. It is, however, an alternative we will use for persistent anti-social behaviour or for one-off very serious incidents. When subject to a fixed-period exclusion the pupil is not permitted on the school site for the duration of the exclusion.